Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the actions this Government has taken to establish the Commonwealth Redress Scheme (CRS) for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse;

(2) congratulates this Government for leading by example by establishing the CRS for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and for inviting other governments and institutions to 'opt in' to the scheme on the responsible 'entity pays basis' recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse;

(3) acknowledges the courage of the survivors who presented evidence to the Royal Commission and that their past and continuing advocacy for redress is vital to the successful implementation of the CRS; and

(4) recognises that this Government acknowledges that survivors of institutional child sexual abuse need and deserve equal access and treatment.

The Turnbull government announced on 4 November this year a Commonwealth Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse and, on that day, invited states, territories and non-government institutions to join in the Commonwealth scheme to deliver redress to the survivors of these wrongs. It was a privilege for me to be there on the day that the Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter, made the announcement in my home town of Perth. Much of the information that I will relay today will be information that Mr Porter included in his speech and also in documents about the redress scheme. Mr Porter said at the announcement:

Today's announcement is delivering on the Coalition's commitment to strive to ensure redress is provided for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse across Australia by the responsible institutions

Mr Deputy Speaker, I am sure you are aware that, in the time that I have been in parliament, on many occasions I have called for redress from those institutions, the churches, charities and non-government institutions who sexually abused children during that period of time, and for them to stump up, return the money that was paid to them by governments and give some redress to these people who were wronged.

The government acknowledges that survivors of institutional child sexual abuse were abandoned and betrayed by many institutions, including governments, churches and charities. Some people may ask what the Commonwealth government Redress Scheme is. To put it simply, this scheme will provide support services to people who were sexually abused as children in Commonwealth institutional settings. It will offer a direct personal response for those survivors who seek it, psychological counselling and a monetary payment to acknowledge the wrongdoing inflicted upon survivors.

Along with many of my colleagues on both sides of the chamber, I think this has been a welcome announcement. I know there are some who may say it has taken too long, and there are others who will criticise the scheme and the processes. There will be others who also say that the scheme should be compulsory, but we cannot forget that this is about getting the best outcome for victims of sexual abuse. I know that some people have said, 'Can't the Commonwealth just establish a scheme for all survivors?'

The fact is that we cannot force the states to be a part of this national scheme. Our desire is to achieve the best option as soon as we can, and that is for a nationally consistent approach to redress so survivors across Australia get equal access and treatment. But the states and the institutions need to be on board to achieve this. We will continue discussions with the states in the hope that we can get the best outcome for survivors.

As I said earlier, while the Commonwealth is unable to force participation in a national scheme, the government will be working closely with states, territories and other non-government institutions to work towards maximising national consistency. A truly national scheme requires the support of the states and the territories. I would also look to those on the other side of the House to assist the states that are led by people in their party to get on board with this Redress Scheme, as I will be encouraging the Western Australian government to get on board with the scheme as well.

The Commonwealth scheme is expected to be established by 2018 and will offer a direct personal response for those survivors who seek it, options to receive psychological counselling and a monetary payment, comprising a maximum payment of $150,000, to acknowledge the wrongdoing inflicted upon them. As I have said many times, the money will never compensate for the abuse that they received, and the psychological and ongoing support that they need is probably just as important as the payment.

The government will also establish an independent advisory council as soon as possible, bringing together a broad group of specialists, including survivor groups, legal and psychological experts, to provide advice on the implementation of the scheme. Hopefully, there will be people from both sides of this chamber—at least one representative from each side of this chamber—on that independent board. Importantly, the government is taking strong action to prevent child sexual abuse in the future, working with state and territory governments, law enforcement agencies, the community sector and researchers to keep children safe. I just happened to see the member for Bowman make a stirring speech here before, in this same chamber, about child abuse and child sexual abuse. In particular, through establishing the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children and funding a range of early intervention and prevention services such as the children and parenting support program, Communities for Children and the Intensive Family Support Service, the central thing that we are trying to avoid in all of this is re-traumatising the victims, who have already been through an enormous amount.

In designing the blueprint for the Commonwealth Redress Scheme, we have exercised every available method and have endeavoured to give practical and operational effect to the recommendations of the royal commission. The design of the redress scheme operated by the Commonwealth is based on four principles. The first principle is that the Commonwealth Redress Scheme will not just be about facilitating individual monetary redress payments. Of equal importance to the individualised monetary redress payments is ensuring that the scheme develops and provides emotional, mental and other support mechanisms to people who are survivors of institutional abuse. So, as well as the monetary payments designed to provide some tangible recognition of the hurt and the harm that have been suffered by so many Australians, the Commonwealth scheme will also provide access for survivors to trauma-informed and culturally adapted counselling over the entire life of the scheme.

It will, thirdly, also allow for something that many redress schemes have not allowed for, and that is personal and direct contact being available, if sought by survivors, with responsible institutions. To put that in more detail, it will be open for any survivor, if they wish, to be able to tell directly and in person a very senior and appropriate individual located in the appropriate organisation their story, and what actually occurred to them. That will be totally at their wish, but that will be available to them as well. So part of all this is going to be a structured and available forum for the victims of sexual abuse to direct and give their stories in a meaningful, individualised way.

The second principle of the Commonwealth Redress Scheme will be that the Commonwealth will continue to do absolutely everything within its power to institute a Commonwealth scheme that has maximum reach to Australians, no matter where they suffered the abuse. The government will exercise every endeavour to make the reach of our scheme as broad as possible, with the ultimate point being to try and make the system that will operate across Australia as consistent as possible for each victim, each survivor, no matter where they were located.

Now to give life to this principle, and to use the direct language of the royal commission report, the Commonwealth will be the operator of a best practice redress scheme, which is open nationally for any state, any territory or any non-government institution to opt into the scheme. The government will be—and this is the second principle—the operator of an opt-in scheme. Any state, any territory, any church or any charity who has responsibility in this area will be able to opt into the scheme that the government has announced.

Consistent with the royal commission recommendations, where an entity opts into the scheme—whether they be a state, territory or non-government institution—they opt in on an opt-in basis. Using again the words of the royal commission, they would opt in on a basis that they fund the cost of their own eligible redress claims in accordance with the requirements of the redress scheme operator. The description of that second principle is this is an opt-in scheme that is operated on a responsible entity-pays basis, consistent with the recommendations of the royal commission.

The third principle on which the scheme will be based is that the Commonwealth, of course, as the operator of this scheme, will require opting in entities, whether they are churches, charities, state governments or territory governments, to abide by the process and design rules that we, the Commonwealth, will institute. The opt-in scheme that we establish will represent the absolute best practice scheme in Australia.

Central to being the best practice scheme, it will be as non-legal and as informal as all the circumstances will allow. Redress payments will be exempted from any potential Commonwealth debt recoveries that may be going on, or could in the future go on, with respect to the individual. Payments will be exempt from any income tests that are relevant to other government payments; so, if there is an income test that is relevant to a government welfare payment, the redress amount will be exempt from that assessment. The application process will be supportive, it will be simple, it will be flexible, and as much will be done as is reasonably possible to avoid the process of re-traumatisation. The scheme—and this is very important—will last for 10 years, and it will be flexible. At the end of that 10 years, there will be a review. If there is a requirement to extend the scheme, it will be extended.

I have run out of time, but I really do want to speak to all the survivors who have given their stories to the royal commission and congratulate them on their valiant efforts to bring to light the sexual abuse they suffered while they were in institutions. I wish them all the best for the future, and I am proud to have been part of the process that has brought this issue to this conclusion.

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